October 2011

October has been spent finishing the last of this years exterior and paint work.

We faired the port side of the cabin, blending it to the rounded cabin front. This involved grinding down some high spots, and filling low spots until it followed a smooth arching curve. Each of the window openings remain flat, but a batten and string read true as they go around.

The aft cabin wall went backwards a step, as we tabbed it to the deck, a step we had planned to do when glassing the rear deck under the overhang after the fish box and companionway to the engine room were in place.

We filled low spots along the deck line, laid a batten on deck in the inside corner and faired the corner to follow the same smooth curve. Then we pulled an epoxy fillet.

The next step is fairing the starboard side of the cabin, and on a series of warm days spraying awlgrips sprayable fairing compound around the entire cabin. The toe rails are getting fairer, and we are aiming to spray from the top corner of the cabin wall, to the outside of the toe rail each pass.

The purpose of fairing the cabin sides this fall, is so that we can move our workshop out of the upper deck, install the windows and start building in the salon. It is significantly faster to sand and fair a smooth unbroken surface, than it is to sand and fair an area with window openings already cut.

We installed the swim platform on the transom, tabbing it in with fiberglass. Not the easiest thing to do off a barge while in the water, but we managed. On the next haul out we will through bolt it to the brackets, but for now it is out of the way and water tight.

The showers in the bathrooms have been rainy day topics the last few months, the forward one is in primer and cased out for the new shower doors. We made a plywood ceiling and fiberglassed it, faired it and primed it prior to installation, as it saves sanding overhead!

The master state room shower is getting the same shower door casing, and is awaiting fiberglass around the casing. The fillets are pulled, and next week it will be primed.

We are shooting to have them shiny in Awlgrip next week, and conclude the dust making so we can move on with the cabinets.

Alas, it is fall once again. It takes longer for epoxy to cure, it takes the perfect day to paint... so the last big push to finish all the little things that need to be done before it gets to cold to do them.

Zach

Noel September 2011

We've been working on the "lines" on the outside of the boat, that define her shape trying to make a big push before winter comes around.

With long wood strips called battens, that flex evenly in smooth fair natural curves we've gone around and sanded down high spots and applied putty to low spots.

We've sanded and shaped the port side of the hull, removing the lumps from her top sides from the boot stripe to the rub rail. We pulled strings, and assessed whether we would remove high spots or build out lows. We ground down the port corner of the transom, and a few high spots
under the rub rail line.

Since the hurricane rolled through, we have bow cleats installed temporarily we removed the outer stem. We had been using the stem to tie the boat up while we worked on her decks. A few years ago when we reframed the boat, we replaced the stem up to the rabbet (Boat terminology for the groove that the forward end of the planks fit in) frm the inside. The outer piece that is largely sacrificial in the event of running into something, was rotten.

We cut out the bad wood, and continued down to the top of her boot stripe. We ran into the old bronze ice sheathing they put on these boats at the waterline. 1/4 inch plate bronze wrapped around a half round of bronze... on top of a piece of 1/2 inch stainless bar.

We laminated three layers of 2 inch thick mahogany on to the pine stem we installed a few years ago, building out a fair curve as viewed in side profile, and tapering it so it narrows at the front.
After the stem was shaped, we epoxied 3/4 marine plywood to each side, rounded the edges and fiberglassed it with 4 layers of 1708 biaxial glass and epoxy.

We pulled out the swim platform and sanded it down, faired it and readied for primer.
On the starboard side we have replaced the roof edge banding, and the toe rail running around the roof. We've been working with battens and sighting down it and sanding to perfection. All the while we've been working the highs and lows out as it makes a 60 foot long curve following the hull of the boat. On the underside, we've rounded it over, with a router and a lot of sanding.
We removed the fiberglass from the front of the cabin, and sides, and have been making strides to blend the flat sides into the round cabin front.

July 2011

July,

We padded out the walls in the master bath with layered plywood "studs" and 3/4 plywood for the interior walls. We also padded the forward state-room, and head to allow for electrical wire to be pulled.

We cut out the existing openings of the shower stalls, and set in place jambs to allow for new glass shower doors.

We fiberglassed the plywood roof overhang, and applied Adtech Proseal.

We cut the round on the back, matching the transoms radius.

We sanded, faired, and primed the back of the cabin wall, and corners.

The rear deck, had been a storage area for some time during the winter. We cleared everything off and began grinding and fairing the new deck, with the stern deck we built two years ago. We applied another layer of fiberglass.

The port toe rail and rub rail have been undergoing a major re-shaping to follow the line of the sheer. We ground down highs, and epoxied fairing strips of wood in various places. Troweled putty, fiberglassed, and sanded.

We removed the remnants of an old seat on the front of the cabin house, and stripped the old polyester fiberglass off. I put a few new studs in that were questionable and repaired some plywood, and then began to fair the curved front of the house in preparation for fiberglass. We will be removing the existing windows and rebuilding the window openings.

We removed the helm station, and console to gain better access to the windows, and developed a few more electrical wire paths.

Much time has been spent researching air conditioning systems, and window makers. Electrical wire paths have been drawn, and the work goes on...

June 2011

June:

We completed mounting of the battery boxes and their lids.

We installed the batteries and their cables.

We cleaned and flushed the main fuel line, of the rust scale from the old Fuel tanks.

-The main line is 1 inch stainless steel pipe running from a T at the fuel tanks, to each of the engines with a drain valve at the forward most end.

We rebuilt the port engine in place. Raising it up 6 inches, dropping the oil pan and replacing the crank bearings. We removed the pistons and liners, installed new rod bearings and put things back together. We enlisted the help of Kenny Starn, an eastern NC mechanic legend...

While the engine work was going on, we fiberglassed the swim platform with west systems epoxy and sealed with Adtech Pro-seal.

While this was going on, we pulled in another carpentry crew to fit a bead board ceiling for you land dwellers. to the underside of the deck, for the boat linguists. (Boat terminology!)

We measured for doors, and drew up cabinets and started the production of both.

We built the back wall of the cabin, and the overhang for the roof using the beams we glued up over the winter.

May 2011

Since the last update, we have finished painting the engine room and state rooms.

We used Sherwin Williams Tile Clad, for the hull planks, frames, and clamp boards. The transom, and bulkheads (other than the work bench) are done in snow white Awlgrip. The tile clad was rolled and brushed, the awlgrip primers were sprayed. The final top coat of awlgrip was a roll and tip job.

The state rooms we went through the long boarding and fairing process, but decided to roll a dover white satin paint.

March 6 2011

Down below in the state rooms we've been sanding primer and long boarding the wall panels that are bent to the curve of her hull. In some places we are still spot filling low spots, others are 220 grit. Theres a fair bit of surface area to sand, each round of grits takes an 8 hour day with a da sander.

The varying colors of primer, are just that... We did a marathon of grey 545, ultrabuild, and fairing compound. This filled all the pin holes and a lot of the minor imperfections on the smooth parts. It also works as a guide coat of where the highs and lows are as we fair. The pink, is Awlgrip Awlfair which fills low spots. Where you see wood tones are high spots that are epoxy coated.

We found a void in one wall... which meant cutting it out and grinding the excess.

Then a layer of fiberglass, with a layer of milled glass fiber on top to fair it in. On surfaces with a lot of curves, I like to add filler that is not soft, so that it grinds the same rate as the fiberglass patch it is covering. Otherwise you get a ripple around the edges where the sandpaper cuts the soft filler faster than the glass. This patch is about 1 foot square. I sanded it smooth with 80 grit on a DA, and blended the edges smoothly with the rest of the panel. It is slower to sand with 80 grit on rough shaping, but since the rest of the panel is 120 grit it made sense not to have to blend and prime to bring this patch up to finish of the rest from using 36 grit.

After it was sanded I mixed up some 407 west systems filler to fill the low spot in the middle with a batten come Monday. The blue around the edge is the tape under the epoxy that I used to mask off the edge.

We doubled up one bulkhead that had a pucker in it with a layer of 1/2 inch plywood, glued with epoxy, and epoxy coated. The doubling will help pull it back straight for the door opening, and give enough material to allow for some shaping with a power plane. I used the extra 407 fairing filler to cover the lows pulled in the panel by the screws we used to laminate it together, after the epoxy coat gelled. (Screws removed)

We finished re-working the round corner, and brought it and the wall we replaced up to 220 grit. It took a bit of planing and sanding over the course of the week. About a half hour a day of sanding, and a flow coat of epoxy resin each day gradually filled the imperfections and grain. 4 coats of epoxy and 1 skim coat of awlfair later... it is now ready for finish primer. (Cheapo camera... shows a bow in the middle that isn't there with a straight edge.)

No pictures: This week we sanded out the glue runs and drips on the underside of the new deck we installed a few months ago, and put a coat of paint on the underside of the deck. We also put another coat of paint on the hull sides, and bilges in the lazarette and engine room.

Before we rolled the paint, we did a deep clean of vacuuming and dusting, then masked off the bulkheads, which are ready for awlgrip 545 and sanded to 320. Our game plan was to seal any of the dust that had worked its self into the crannies of the boat that might be stirred up by spraying paint. Now we are waiting for the perfect day to spray the transom, rudder table, bulkheads, and battery boxes.

Outside we've been finishing the fairing in of the six fiberglass tubes we molded, and glassed in place to keep water leaks at the port lights from rotting out the hull. We affectionately call them the "portlight tubes."

Cheers,

Zach

February 15 2011

We are still sanding primer...

We had some adhesion issues in the engine room with the primer on the last go round, so we sanded off everything back to the fiberglass and epoxy coated wood.

We then applied a few rolled coats of Awlgrip 545, sanded and filled pin holes and low spots with Awlfair. Then applied a few more rolled coats of 545 until the filler was covered. We then sanded with 120 grit, and sprayed a coat of Awlgrip Awlquick over the surface and have brought that finish up to 220 grit preparing to top coat with Awlgrip.

Since all this sanding and spraying has been going on in the engine room, I opened up the stateroom end of the boat and we started the rounds of 545 and fairing compound up there.

We removed, and rebuilt one of the curved corners of the master state room head (bathroom) as it had a bow built in to it that didn't become obvious until in primer.